Nachoman

One of the mechanics for team jelly belly told me that he inspects and removes debris from all of his tires with a dental tool. So last time I got my teeth cleaned, my dentist was nice enough to give me an old one (pictured above). It's now really simple to pop out tiny, sharp pieces of glass that get stuck in the tread and surface of the tire.

How often do you inspect your tires and how do you remove debris from them?

acaurora

o.O I'm not sure if using something as sharp as that is particularly safe... considering how high the pressure in our tires are...

Being fairly new to road cycling, after ever ride I flip the bike over and look at the tires... if there is anything that I see stuck in there I can generally use my nails to get it out... if it doesn't just get some tweezers, but I have yet to have to resort to tweezers though. Generally the debris for me are just tiny fragments of thorns/goatheads.

pinwheel

I just did mine for the first time but nobody told me to. I found all sorts of sharp stuff tightly clamped in there. I took the tires off and folded the tread to open the cuts and cleaned them out. I filled the damage with glue to keep more stuff from getting stuck in the same cut but that might not hold for long.

e2py

I ride Vittoria Rubino Pro Slicks (no tread) and they do not seem to ever pick up anything that would need to be picked out.

Your dental tool has additional value to you to pick out bits of metal and other "stuff" that will become lodged in your brake pads. Cleaning the pads on a regular basis will extend the life of your rim braking surfaces because they will not develop grooves from such debris in the pads. (but you probably knew that already).

Discount tool and dollar store type places often have packs of 5 different dental tools with 2 different ends on each. I can't tell you how many times I've used them for all different things.

Keep those tires tartar free!

dgasmd

Never. Tire gets inspected and washed when the bike gets washed. That is it!

heavyMetal

sometimes immediately - went through a patch of glass on yesterday's ride. I was in the bike lane and cars were on my left, curb on my right so couldn't avoid the glass. Stopped at the next light and spun the wheel w/glove over the tires to remove any glass shards. I've seen a guy unclip and bring his foot around to rest on the back tire to remove glass - looks like a good way to initiate an epic fail.

Usually after a ride, I go over the tires with a scrub sponge to remove road debris.

ricohman

The Specialized Roubaix tires on my Roubaix don't pick up anything. I've never even wiped them off.

Randochap

Looks like a good tool for the job. Check mine at least weekly, more if I've ridden through debris. Seal cuts with Super glue.

Tunnelrat81

Been using a dental pick for a while now too, maybe every couple of months. It's perfectly safe if you're not a knob about it. But this is more urgent with softer rubber compounds like the specialized mondo/all condition tires that I'll never buy again. I'm running gatorskins now and stuff just doesn't get embedded nearly as often. When my wife first got her Specialized Ruby, I'd have to check and remove debris, gravel and pieces of glass almost every week it seemed, and she's a lightweight. No thanks.

-Jeremy

Jynx

Never

KevinF

Wow. I have never (and I've been riding a couple thousand miles a year since '93) looked at my tires in order to pull debris or whatever out. And I'm usually going a couple thousand miles between flats. I'd think anything that's going to work its way through the tire is going to do so pretty fast (i.e., a lot faster then you can stop and pull it out)

UGASkiDawg

Never and I almost never wash my bike either....of course it's 12 years old so who cares.

GP

During a ride if I ride through glass I'll use my thumb to knock off anything on the surface. I look closer after every ride. If I see a little cut I'll let the air out and squeeze the tire to see if there's anything in there.

botto 

ever notice that short cylinder, popping out of the inside of your rim?

it's called a valve. press down on it, then remove debris.

AngryScientist 

once a week, unless i know i ran through some nasty stuff, same time i lube my drivetrain and do a general once-over of the whole bike.

anticlimbactic

Huh... I've done it once so far. All of my flats have been pretty instant. A screw, a staple, a gash in the sidewall, etc. Never some tiny piece of glass making its way through the tire...

Val23708

every time i clean my chain i inspect the tires. the front usually doesn't have problems but the rear i often find cuts. I fill them with elmer's glue